Experiments On General Relativity Theory

[Mehran Basti]

Dear News group:

In Science Now Daily news Phil Berardelli writes:

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/703/2

{
As if his reputation needed cementing, astronomers have confirmed
Albert Einstein's status as a supergenius once more. Studying a unique
pair of pulsars--small and extremely dense leftovers from supernova
explosions--researchers have measured an effect that was predicted by
Einstein's 92-year-old general theory of relativity. The result, they
report tomorrow in Science, is almost exactly what the famous
physicist had foreseen.

In Einstein's relativistic universe, matter curves space and slows
down time, and the speed of light remains the only constant. But those
are the big effects. The theory of relativity also includes some more
esoteric details, one of which is called spin precession. The idea
goes like this: Two massive bodies orbiting near each other will warp
space enough to disturb the central axis around which both are
moving,causing them to begin wobbling just like spinning tops. Strong
gravity creates this so-called precession, and the more massive the
objects, the easier the precession is to observe.

It's not an easy theory to test. Researchers need two very dense
objects orbiting very close together, and they have to be able to
detect what is going on between them. Black holes are dense, but their
event horizons preclude observations. The lack of candidates and
telescopic power had frustrated astronomers for years, until the
discovery in 2003 of a particular pair of pulsars. These asteroid-
sized objects pack sunlike masses, extremely small orbits, and
incredibly fast spins. They also emit powerful and ultraregular radio
signals that are easily detectable with Earth-based dishes. Most
important in this case, one pulsar eclipses the other briefly every
couple of hours. That's key to detecting precession, because during
each eclipse astronomers can determine the precise angle of the radio
signal and therefore the pulsar's wobble over time.

For the past 4 years, an international team has been carefully
tracking the signals of one of the pulsars and monitoring the signals'
direction during eclipses--a observational technique "that has never
been employed before," says astrophysicist and co-author Rene Breton
of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The researchers determined
that the precession of the pulsar's orbital axis advances by 4.77
degrees per year, plus or minus 0.66 degrees. Calculations based on
Einstein's theory predicted it should advance by 5.07 degrees per
year, well within the margin of error.

"It's bang-on," says astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Joseph Taylor
of Princeton University. "Einstein's theory passed the test this
time," agrees astrophysicist Fotis Gavriil of NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who praises the study's "amazing
high-precision measurement." So is Einstein's reputation secure? Says
Gavriil, "Only with experiments like this will we know for sure."

}

My own comments:

Certainly, the issue of acceptability of the truth of certain
scientific facts related to who are in the first place hired in the
academia to prove or disprove of certain scientific issues.

With my over 20 years of experience with academic institutions, I
would say that a very like minded people like Einstein are hired (in
the academia) to comment about his theories.

This does not mean the above judgment is necessarily wrong, but the
degree of the confidence about its truth is very weak.

Why always grants given to issues of relativity, Fermat Last theorem,
etc. And not to NEW EXACT MATH?

Despite the fact that Riccati equations are in heart of mathematical
physics.

I was reading a note about “ Collatz conjecture” :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collatz_conjecture

Paul Erdos said about the Collatz conjecture, "Mathematics is not yet
ready for such problems." He offered $500 for its solution. (Lagarias
1985).

Well, it was a selfish note by him to comment as above.

I never was ready for mathematics of Erdos (not much liked it).

This means that he felt only certain group of mathematicians have
right to say which way mathematics are headed (since he was sure the
math community was under his group control! (as unfortunately it is
today)).

This is very dangerous to the cause of humanity, once they went too
far in the past and ignored their position in history, the events of
1940 happened, and if they are not careful, it may happen again in the
21st century.

Let us hope they learn lessons of the history.

Dr.Mehran Basti

[Mehran Basti]

Mehran Basti wrote:

> Paul Erdos said about the Collatz conjecture, "Mathematics is not yet
> ready for such problems." He offered $500 for its solution. (Lagarias
> 1985).
>

$500 is a small amount, possibly to reflect negatively on mathematics
of Lothar Collatz.

These days prizes are much higher in its thousands of dollars to
reflect the importance of the problem!

They think amount of the prize will be a positive reflection of their
own value judgments.

Not much I personally believe in value judgments of mathematicians
like Abel Prize winners.

I do not know how many Nobel Prize Laureates (in physics) since 1960
have questioned Einstein’s relativity? Possibly none! Since they do
not offer prizes to such candidates!

Dr.Mehran Basti